What difference does it make whether one lives in a cave or house or forest or on top of a mountain, or in water or in fire ? Oh Sambho! It is Yoga when mind is also focussed on your foot and he, with such a focussed mind is greatest yogi and only he is happy.

In Sloka 10 and 11 AachaaryaaL says that a bhakthimaan would not mind taking any birth be it human, animal, insect or a worm. Even in respect of human births, it would not matter to him to be a Brahmana or a Kshathriya or a Vaisya or a Sudhra if he has dhruda bhakthi to Parameswara. In this sloka AachaaryaaL points out that different places do not by themselves bring janma saabalyam but again it is only Parameswara bhakthi that brings Moksha to a person.

Our saasthraas say that one should give up his dehaabimaanam and realize that the inside entity that enjoys everything is Brahman. This realization is called ‘yogam’. This is underscored as in: “yOga: aham BrahmEthi gnaanam, thadhvaan Yogi”. We have (a) five gnaanEndhriyaas, (b) five karmEndhriyaas, (c) five praaNas, (d) manas and (e) buddhi. There are five peetams corresponding to the above five. . These five peetams would look like a lotus flower. There are five devathaas that correspond to these five peetams and they are: (a) Brahma (b) Vishnu (c) Rudhra (d) Maheswara and (e) Sadhaasiva. Beyond these five peetams is the Self-shining Siva Jyothi which is the Suddha NirguNa Sivam. To this NirguNa Sivam one should have ekhaagra manas without letting it wander towards vishayas. Having this NirguNa Sivam pervade one’s mind with the knowledge “I am Siva (SivOham)” is the most superior Raja Yoga. Those who do this anusandhaanam are the Raja Yogis who enjoy MOkshaanandham.

There is nothing that Raja Yogis cannot do. They are possessed of all the ashta siddhis. Without knowing this secret praanis make grave mistake by thinking that their janmam can attain saabalyam by means of sthala visEshas. By living in dense forest or in the caves in tall mountains or in the midst of water or surrounded by agni one cannot attain MOksha. Instead having dhruda bhakthi to Parameswara by surrendering one’s mind at His lotus feet alone can MOksha be attained. We are not denying that there is sthala visEsham however without dhruda bhakthi these sthala visEsham is of no use. In Ramayana Vaalmiki says:

The interesting meaning of the example “vihinathilakEvasthree” is that if a woman wears all kinds of jewelleries and garments would not attain sampoorna soundharyam if she does not wear kumkuma thilakam on her forehead. On the other hand a woman who only wears a kumkuma thilakam and not jewelleries would yet have sObhanam. This kumkuma thilakam is compared to Dhruda Bhakthi to Parameswara. So this slOka reiterates that Moksha is not attained by snaanam or japam or manthram or yanthram or sankeerthanam or yagna dhaanam etc but only by the surrender of the lotus flower of one’s mind to Parameswara.

The second quotes are from the judgement of the Supreme Court (in RY Prabhoo Vs PK Kunte AIR 1996 Sc 1113 is now popularly known as the Hindutva case). In that case, Supreme Court was called upon to consider whether ideology of Hindutva was communal. Guruji had always referred to Hinduism as an “all embracing” “way of life” of the people of this country and “not (a) narrow religion” (p72/137); he also used to refer to it as Hindu culture (p51/p78). The Supreme Court, decades later, came to acquire the same view that Hinduism “may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more” and “in fact it does not satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed.” (Hindutva case p.1127). The Court also said the terms ‘Hindutva’ or ‘Hinduism’ may be to promote secularism or to emphasise the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian culture or ethos” (Hindutva case p.1132). So, word for word what Guruji had been saying for decades earlier the Supreme Court agreed with the views of Guruji.
Now look at the chronology. The first Volume of the Fundamentalism Project came out in 1991; and the last and the fifth Volume, in 1995; the fourth Volume, which is cited here, came out in 1994. The Supreme Court judgement on Hindutva came out in 1995. Guruji who became the Sarsanghachalak of the RSS in the year 1940 passed away in the year 1973. It means that Guruji, who was articulating the RSS ideology since 1940 for 33 years till the end of his life in 1973, more than two decades before the Fundamentalism Project volumes and the Supreme Court judgment were out. And yet the thoughts and expressions of Guruji which were mindlessly, and at times maliciously, criticised were endorsed by the Fundamentalism Project and by the Supreme Court. So what Guruji spoke decades earlier was not only in tune with the intellectual, cultural and religious analysis of Hinduism contained in the Fundamentalism Project of 1990s but also consistent with the secular constitutional perspective of the Supreme Court regarding Hindutva. When Guruji spoke that what he did, his views were criticised as anti-secular and communal. But the very views of Guruji were later accepted and endorsed by intellectual appraisal by the Fundamentalism Project and legal scrutiny by the Supreme Court. It only means that what Guruji spoke was ahead of his time.
These are just illustrations to show how Guruji’s thoughts unacceptable then became acceptable later. The later parts of this series will more exhaustively deal with how Guruji’s views on various subjects have been vindicated by time. But before that serious exercise begins, here is a background of Guruji to those uninitiated about him.
Guruji – a spiritualist who subsumed himself and his self for the nation
Guruji became the second Sarsanghachalak of the RSS an original, but less understood and mostly unfairly judged, man-making and nation-building movement founded by Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who chose Golwalkar as his successor. Guruji, a spiritualist by nature, training and temper, was a disciple of Swami Akhandananda, a direct initiate of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Guruji, an intelligent young man, matured into a towering intellectual who subsumed, like all saints in the Indian tradition, his total self in building the RSS. The spiritual dimension of Guruji that lay hidden deep in him perhaps subtly influenced his thought and action.
This spiritual element in him seems to have enabled Guruji to defy and overcome the arresting and compelling influence of the contemporary times, vault over the current issues, look at the future transcending and overcoming the excruciating pain of ignoring, context from that vantage point and appeal to the conscience of the people and the nation. That is why many who knew him regard him as Drishta – a Seer.
As the second Sarsanghachalak of RSS from 1940 till 1973 when he breathed his last, Guruji led the RSS for 33 years. He relentlessly expounded the ancient Hindu philosophy and way of life, not merely in the context of his times, but with a vision of the future. He ceaselessly toured different parts of the country year after year, met people, shared his thoughts with them and built arguably the strongest grass-root organisation in the world. The intellectual and moral courage implicit in his articulation and the clarity with which he expounded his ideas, are legendary. Even those, who questioned Guruji’s thoughts in his lifetime and later, could not deny the courage of his conviction and sincerity of his purpose. Guruji assumed the leadership of the RSS in 1940 when the movement for Partition of India, that eventually succeeded, was assuming dangerous proportions. So some of his thoughts ought to be read in the context of the extreme heat that the movement for Partition had aroused.
From those turbulent times, for over a quarter century after the country attained political freedom, Guruji had expressed his views with unwavering consistency on issues concerning the future of India though he spoke in contemporary conditions. A recall of what Guruji spoke in his lifetime in the light of later history brings out the fact that much of what Guruji spoke had had greater relevance to the future, though he spoke in the given context. While articulating his views, Guruji tended to defy the compulsions of the context and contemporary attractions of his times and placed before the people the eternal agenda of Hindu India.
Guruji had shared his thoughts with the people of India for over three decades as the head of the RSS and it is almost four decades since he passed away. But his work did not end with him; it continues through the RSS, which he had shaped into a mighty influence over the society. He has left behind a vast and trained human asset of high quality, which renews itself through the very work of the RSS. This quality human resource carries on his work.
Guruji – not a Prophet but a drishta (seer)
But Guruji was not a Prophet. He did not prophesy. In fact, the Hindu tradition does not recognise or believe in any Prophet or prophesy. Hinduism does not postulate prophesies. Prophets in other traditions discover the what they regard as the only true religion and God and prescribe them to their followers and equally mandate that all other religions and Gods are false. The truth propounded by a Prophet becomes the final and the only truth. This applies to all monotheistic faiths which are explained in detail in the parts that follow. But Hinduism is founded on the basis that the ultimate truth is one but sages view and describe it differently. Therefore there is nothing like one way of worship being true and others false or some God being true and other Gods false. Hindus therefore believe that great seers come and guide the people from time to time and the tradition of seers continue as an unending stream. So, no one’s thought is the final prophesy or valid for all times as in the case of faiths propounded by prophets. Hinduism is not propounded by any person. Sages and seers expound the principles of Hinduism. Hinduism believes that if people persist with following the thoughts of the past beyond their period of validity, they will be frozen in the past and rejected by the course of history; else, they will cause immense violence and harm to the society and to the world at large as different dogmatic faiths and prophesies have done. So before accepting what a seer had said in the past for guidance in future, Hindus understand that the seer’s role is a chapter in the continuing tradition of great men born from time to time to guide the people. So Hinduism rejects the very notion of prophesy and prophets, understands only Drishta.
The first test to know whether one is a Drishta – seer – is to know whether one’s thoughts are just contextual, namely to satisfy the contextual needs and demands or to win the approbation of the people in his times or for power or whether he spoke detached from the contemporary situation with the future in vision. The crucial test is whether one has defied the compulsions of the present and willingly courted unpopularity to stand by and tell the truth. And the ultimate test is whether the future has validated those thoughts. The heart of the analysis here is whether Guruji’s thoughts spoken over half a century ago were expressed with the future in mind or the context as the compulsion and whether they have been validated or rejected by history after him. The parts that follow this part probe into the thoughts and sayings of Guruji. The probe ultimately establishes that Guruji was a Drishta who transcended the context and its compulsions and limitations and rose to a vantage point from which he could see into the future. In the process what he spoke then was unacceptable and unpopular then but became later as the time for his thoughts expressed ahead of time arrived.
(To be continued)

Subsequently, Kannaiyan, a resident of Kanjanoor filed a complaint with the Thirupanandal police and alleged that he was manhandled and threatened by two unknown disciples of Nithyananda. The Tirupanandal police has initiated an investigation.

Nithyananda, after the anointment as junior pontiff of Madurai Aadheenam, had visited Kanjanoor Agneeswarar temple near Kumbakonam.

On Saturday, Kanjanoor villagers staged a one-day fast against entry of Nithya-nanda into the temple.

Following allegations that the details of the famed inestimable wealth of Lord Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple have leaked outside to foreign hands, the Central Intelligence agencies have swung into action. It has been alleged that a member of the core trusted committee himself is responsible for the leakage of all details pertaining to the wealth contained in the confidential CD. It is said that the details related to the wealth have now been transferred to foreign hands, for the sake of vested interests alone. Intelligence agencies are shocked about the fact that many details related to the wealth are now available in the form of CD and books. The matter has put a blotch and a question mark over the credibility of the trusted core committee members appointed by the Supreme Court.

Only 4 members of the trusted core committee have details pertaining to the contents of vault E, which contains the Lord’s crown, Sharapolimala, an icon of the feet studded with jewels, gold cauldron, jewels that are the size of coconuts. Till now census has been taken with regard to C, D, E. F vaults. The details related to the value of the treasure, which will surpass a million crores are hitherto known only by the committee’s Chairman, experts from Keltron and the Executive Officer of the temple. The details are transferred by them into the server that has been set up inside the temple. The password is known only to the 4concerned. However, the 4 of them do not know among themselves, the password code. Only if the 4 of them come together can the matter stored in the server be transferred to the CD. It is now alleged that the matter that has been transferred to the CD to be submitted to the Supreme Court has now reached the hands of foreign elements.

The big questions arise: How? Who has removed the seal that has been so meticulously cast over the CD cover? And how have the images now been transferred to a spirally bound book? All these queries for which answers are required, will be investigated in depth by the investigating team. Adissenting note which contains details about activities that are taking place, against the interests of the temple, has also been prepared by the temple’s Executive Officer.

The Royal Family has also been intimated about the details of the ‘anonymous’ person who leaked the facets about the treasure by VK Harikumar, member of the inspection team appointed by Supreme Court and Executive Officer of the Temple. The leakage of details has happened inspite of stringent Supreme Court orders specifying that no information regarding the wealth should ever seep out. A copy of the spirally bound book which features the leaked images has also been handed to the Supreme Court. However, the apex court, on its part has not asked for the same either. The intelligence agencies now suspect that the pictures have now reached different corners of the world.

Researchers conclude that climate change led to collapse of ancient Indus civilization

May 28, 2012

A new study combining the latest archaeological evidence with state-of-the-art geoscience technologies provides evidence that climate change was a key ingredient in the collapse of the great Indus or Harappan Civilization almost 4000 years ago. The study also resolves a long-standing debate over the source and fate of the Sarasvati, the sacred river of Hindu mythology.

Once extending more than 1 million square kilometers across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, over what is now Pakistan, northwest India and eastern Afghanistan, the Indus civilization was the largest—but least known—of the first great urban cultures that also included Egypt and Mesopotamia. Like their contemporaries, the Harappans, named for one of their largest cities, lived next to rivers owing their livelihoods to the fertility of annually watered lands.
“We reconstructed the dynamic landscape of the plain where the Indus civilization developed 5200 years ago, built its cities, and slowly disintegrated between 3900 and 3000 years ago,” said Liviu Giosan, a geologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and lead author of the study published the week of May 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Until now, speculations abounded about the links between this mysterious ancient culture and its life-giving mighty rivers.”

Today, numerous remains of the Harappan settlements are located in a vast desert region far from any flowing river. In contrast to Egypt and Mesopotamia, which have long been part of the Western classical canon, this amazingly complex culture in South Asia with a population that at its peak may have reached 10 percent of the world’s inhabitants, was completely forgotten until 1920’s. Since then, a flurry of archaeological research in Pakistan and India has uncovered a sophisticated urban culture with myriad internal trade routes and well-established sea links with Mesopotamia, standards for building construction, sanitation systems, arts and crafts, and a yet-to-be deciphered writing system.

“We considered that it is high time for a team of interdisciplinary scientists to contribute to the debate about the enigmatic fate of these people,” added Giosan.

The research was conducted between 2003 and 2008 in Pakistan, from the coast of the Arabian Sea into the fertile irrigated valleys of Punjab and the northern Thar Desert. The international team included scientists from the U.S., U.K., Pakistan, India, and Romania with specialties in geology, geomorphology, archaeology, and mathematics. By combining satellite photos and topographic data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the researchers prepared and analyzed digital maps of landforms constructed by the Indus and neighboring rivers, which were then probed in the field by drilling, coring, and even manually-dug trenches. Collected samples were used to determine the sediments’ origins, whether brought in and shaped by rivers or wind, and their age, in order to develop a chronology of landscape changes.

“Once we had this new information on the geological history, we could re-examine what we know about settlements, what crops people were planting and when, and how both agriculture and settlement patterns changed,” said co-author Dorian Fuller, an archaeologist with University College London. “This brought new insights into the process of eastward population shift, the change towards many more small farming communities, and the decline of cities during late Harappan times.”

The new study suggests that the decline in monsoon rains led to weakened river dynamics, and played a critical role both in the development and the collapse of the Harappan culture, which relied on river floods to fuel their agricultural surpluses.
From the new research, a compelling picture of 10,000 years of changing landscapes emerges. Before the plain was massively settled, the wild and forceful Indus and its tributaries flowing from the Himalaya cut valleys into their own deposits and left high “interfluvial” stretches of land between them. In the east, reliable monsoon rains sustained perennial rivers that crisscrossed the desert leaving behind their sedimentary deposits across a broad region.

Among the most striking features the researchers identified is a mounded plain, 10 to 20 meters high, over 100 kilometers wide, and running almost 1000 kilometers along the Indus, they call the “Indus mega-ridge,” built by the river as it purged itself of sediment along its lower course.

“At this scale, nothing similar has ever been described in the geomorphological literature,” said Giosan. “The mega-ridge is a surprising indicator of the stability of Indus plain landscape over the last four millennia. Remains of Harappan settlements still lie at the surface of the ridge, rather than being buried underground.”

Mapped on top of the vast Indo-Gangetic Plain, the archaeological and geological data shows instead that settlements bloomed along the Indus from the coast to the hills fronting the Himalayas, as weakened monsoons and reduced run-off from the mountains tamed the wild Indus and its Himalayan tributaries enough to enable agriculture along their banks.

“The Harappans were an enterprising people taking advantage of a window of opportunity – a kind of “Goldilocks civilization,” said Giosan. “As monsoon drying subdued devastating floods, the land nearby the rivers – still fed with water and rich silt – was just right for agriculture. This lasted for almost 2,000 years, but continued aridification closed this favorable window in the end.”

In another major finding, the researchers believe they have settled a long controversy about the fate of a mythical river, the Sarasvati. The Vedas, ancient Indian scriptures composed in Sanskrit over 3000 years ago, describe the region west of the Ganges as “the land of seven rivers.” Easily recognizable are the Indus and its current tributaries, but the Sarasvati, portrayed as “surpassing in majesty and might all other waters” and “pure in her course from mountains to the ocean,” was lost. Based on scriptural descriptions, it was believed that the Sarasvati was fed by perennial glaciers in the Himalayas. Today, the Ghaggar, an intermittent river that flows only during strong monsoons and dissipates into the desert along the dried course of Hakra valley, is thought to best approximate the location of the mythic Sarasvati, but its Himalayan origin and whether it was active during Vedic times remain controversial.

Archaeological evidence supports the Ghaggar-Hakra as the location of intensive settlement during Harappan times. The geological evidence—sediments, topography— shows that rivers were indeed sizable and highly active in this region, but most likely due to strong monsoons. There is no evidence of wide incised valleys like along the Indus and its tributaries and there is no cut-through, incised connections to either of the two nearby Himalayan-fed rivers of Sutlej and Yamuna. The new research argues that these crucial differences prove that the Sarasvati (Ghaggar-Hakra) was not Himalayan-fed, but a perennial monsoon-supported watercourse, and that aridification reduced it to short seasonal flows.

By 3900 years ago, their rivers drying, the Harappans had an escape route to the east toward the Ganges basin, where monsoon rains remained reliable.

“We can envision that this eastern shift involved a change to more localized forms of economy: smaller communities supported by local rain-fed farming and dwindling streams,” said Fuller. “This may have produced smaller surpluses, and would not have supported large cities, but would have been reliable.”

Such a system was not favorable for the Indus civilization, which had been built on bumper crop surpluses along the Indus and the Ghaggar-Hakra rivers in the earlier wetter era. This dispersal of population meant that there was no longer a concentration of workforce to support urbanism. “Thus cities collapsed, but smaller agricultural communities were sustainable and flourished. Many of the urban arts, such as writing, faded away, but agriculture continued and actually diversified,” said Fuller.
“An amazing amount of archaeological work has been accumulating over the last decades, but it’s never been linked properly to the evolution of the fluvial landscape. We now see landscape dynamics as the crucial link between climate change and people,” said Giosan. “Today the Indus system feeds the largest irrigation scheme in the world, immobilizing the river in channels and behind dams. If the monsoon were to increase in a warming world, as some predict, catastrophic floods such as the humanitarian disaster of 2010, would turn the current irrigation system, designed for a tamer river, obsolete.”

Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
The SUV was invented in India thousands of years ago?

Oh, I get it. You’re a troll.
report
NotParker
4 hours ago

Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Wait a minute. Did they say climate change?

“The wide river bed (paleo-channel) of the Ghaggar river suggest that the river once flowed full of water during the great meltdown of the Himalayan Ice Age glaciers, some 10,000 years ago, and that it then continued through the entire region, in the presently dry channel of the Hakra River, possibly emptying into the Rann of Kutch. It supposedly dried up due to the capture of its tributaries by the Indus system and the Yamuna river, and later on, additionally, the loss of water in much of its catchment area due to deforestation and overgrazing.”

How Parker Tard manages to feed itself with it’s mental disease, is unknown. Perhaps this could be investigated by a competent psychiatrist.

If you grew up you might understand the arguments.
report
Vierotchka
3 hours ago

Rank: not rated yet
That is far from explaining the vitrified pottery and masonry found at Mohenjo Daro and Harappa…
report
ryggesogn2
1 hour ago

Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
The SUV was invented in India thousands of years ago?

Oh, I get it. You’re a troll.

I just like to point out that the excuse for everything is ‘climate change’.
If true, how did the Indians cause the climate changes thousands of years ago since the ONLY way climate can seem to change is from humans.
report
Vendicar_Decarian
1 minute ago

Rank: not rated yet
Yup. Regional climate change.

Wait a minute. Did they say climate change?” – ParkerTard

Still Foncused? Tard boy. Get thee to a psychiatrist.

report

Climate change wiped out one of the world’s first, great civilisations more than 4,000 years ago
Ancient ‘Indus’ civilisation was one of first great urban cultures
Stretched for a million square kilometres
Climate change altered routes of rivers
By EDDIE WRENN

PUBLISHED: 18:11 GMT, 28 May 2012 | UPDATED: 19:46 GMT, 28 May 2012

Climate change led to the collapse of the ancient Indus civilization more than 4,000 years ago, archaeologists believe.
The Indus civilization was the largest – but least known – of the first great urban cultures that also included Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The empire stretched over more than a million square kilometers across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, over what is now Pakistan, northwest India and eastern Afghanistan.
Now for the first time scientists believe they have discovered that climate change was a key ingredient in the collapse of the civilisation.

The study also resolves a long-standing debate over the source and fate of the Sarasvati, the sacred river of Hindu mythology, the authors believe.

Dr Liviu Giosan, a geologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and lead author of the study, said: ‘We reconstructed the dynamic landscape of the plain where the Indus civilization developed 5200 years ago, built its cities, and slowly disintegrated between 3900 and 3000 years ago.

‘Until now, speculations abounded about the links between this mysterious ancient culture and its life-giving mighty rivers.’
Like their contemporaries, the Harappans, who may have made up 10 per cent of the world’s population, the group lived next to rivers, owing their livelihoods to the fertility of annually watered lands.

The Indus River in Karakoram Range near Skardu, Pakistan, remains a lifeline even in the modern day

Like their contemporaries, the Harappans, who may have made up 10 per cent of the world’s population, the group lived next to rivers, owing their livelihoods to the fertility of annually watered lands.

But the remains of their settlements are located in a vast desert region far from any flowing river.

The civilisation was forgotten until the 1920s. But since then, a flurry of research has uncovered a sophisticated urban culture with myriad internal trade routes and well-established sea links with Mesopotamia, Archaeologists have also discovered building constructions, sanitation systems, arts and crafts, and a yet-to-be deciphered writing system.

Over five years an international team has been combining satellite photos and topographic data to make digital maps of landforms constructed by the Indus and neighboring rivers, which were then probed in the field by drilling, coring, and even manually-dug trenches and samples were tested.

Co-author Dorian Fuller, an archaeologist with University College London, said: ‘Once we had this new information on the geological history, we could re-examine what we know about settlements, what crops people were planting and when, and how both agriculture and settlement patterns changed.

Rivers such as the Indus gave life – but when the monsoons vanished, so did the civilisation which relied on it

‘This brought new insights into the process of eastward population shift, the change towards many more small farming communities, and the decline of cities during late Harappan times.’

The study suggests the decline in monsoon rains led to weakened river dynamics, and played a critical role both in the development and the collapse of the Harappan culture, which relied on river floods to fuel their agricultural surpluses.
The research provides a picture of 10,000 years of changing landscapes and the researchers identified a striking mounded plain, 10 to 20 meters high, over 100 kilometers wide, and running almost 1000 kilometers along the Indus, they call the ‘Indus mega-ridge,’ built by the river as it purged itself of sediment along its lower course.

‘The Harappans were an enterprising people taking advantage of a window of opportunity – a kind of ‘Goldilocks civilization,’ said Dr Giosan.

‘As monsoon drying subdued devastating floods, the land nearby the rivers – still fed with water and rich silt – was just right for agriculture. This lasted for almost 2,000 years, but continued aridification closed this favorable window in the end.’
The researchers believe they have uncovered the fate of a mythical river, the Sarasvati, described in The Vedas, ancient Indian scriptures composed in Sanskrit over 3000 years ago, which it is believed was fed by perennial glaciers in the Himalayas.
Today, the Ghaggar, an intermittent river that flows only during strong monsoons and dissipates into the desert along the dried course of Hakra valley, is thought to best approximate the location of the mythic Sarasvati, but its Himalayan origin and whether it was active during Vedic times remain controversial.

By 3900 years ago, their rivers drying, the Harappans had an escape route to the east toward the Ganges basin, where monsoon rains remained reliable.

‘We can envision that this eastern shift involved a change to more localised forms of economy: smaller communities supported by local rain-fed farming and dwindling streams,’ said Dr Fuller.

‘This may have produced smaller surpluses, and would not have supported large cities, but would have been reliable.
‘Cities collapsed, but smaller agricultural communities were sustainable and flourished. Many of the urban arts, such as writing, faded away, but agriculture continued and actually diversified.’

Dr Giosan added: ‘An amazing amount of archaeological work has been accumulating over the last decades, but it’s never been linked properly to the evolution of the fluvial landscape. We now see landscape dynamics as the crucial link between climate change and people.

‘Today the Indus system feeds the largest irrigation scheme in the world, immobilizing the river in channels and behind dams. If the monsoon were to increase in a warming world, as some predict, catastrophic floods such as the humanitarian disaster of 2010, would turn the current irrigation system, designed for a tamer river, obsolete.’

Seat of power: The empire stretched from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, over what is now Pakistan, northwest India and eastern Afghanistan

Conspiracy theory was formulated by the Indian Intelligence but higher up killed the idea

On Sonia Gandhi – Blog by Ex-Indian Intelligence Analyst (Nishkamya)

Nishkamya’s Blog
Just another WordPress.com site

From Blog of Ex-Indian Intelligence
Posted on December 6, 2011 2

Given Kapil Sibal’s ravings and rantings I thought it best to save the contents of this blog before it was brought down.http://indianintelligence2009.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 21, 2009
Playing with a nation’s choices
Part 1 : Three funerals and a wedding

Prologue
I was part of various analysis teams of Indian intelligence agencies during the 80’s and 90’s and now live a anonymous life in a distant land. What I am going to propagate over a 3 part series in the next few days might seem very farfetched and even fantastic to most people and many conspiracy theorists might gleefully accept it as vindication for whatever they have been screaming from rooftops for quite some time now. My attempt though is neither to please any one nor to prove someone else wrong or right; it is just to come out with the truth as we perceived it. Most of the theory that I am going to put forward in part 1 is the work of us 5 people in 1991 while analyzing all the intelligence inputs over the years in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. We in the intelligence parlays termed it as “the Rajiv brief”. Most conclusions that we had come up with were unanimous and unequivocal. I must hasten to add that many parts of this so called “the Rajiv brief” were also part of an earlier analysis done in the mid 80’s by another team investigating the conspiracy angle to Mrs Indira Gandhi’s death. Theoretic overlapping in terms of evidences, intelligence briefings and logical conclusions between these two analysis reports might be common, but there are also significant points of divergence in both of these reports and since I have been privy to both I would suggest that the number of points of convergence between both sets of analysis far outnumber the differences. Sometime in the middle of 1992 we were suddenly asked to debunk the whole theory and change our line of thinking by powers that be, and we had to let go of a “very strong” case that we were building then. Of the core group of 5 analysts who were working on that case, 3 are no more (all died of normal causes) and 2 of us are still living anonymously without being in touch with each other. This is my attempt (after almost 2 decades) to complete “the Rajiv brief” and take it to its logical conclusion with the benefit of hindsight. I must warn though, that this is at the end of the day, just a theory based on intelligence inputs and field analysis built on a very plausible premise. It is an attempt to fill in the blanks between the “if’s” and “buts” of history with the luxury of retrospective intelligence.
The Theory: Five people four scenarios and three events
Mrs Sonia Gandhi is today the most powerful person in India and probably one of the most powerful women on earth. Elections 2009 have only reinforced her power. How did she end up becoming the most powerful person in India? This is the story of that ascendancy. Five people, four scenarios and three events stood between Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her destiny. Over the next few pages I am going to explain those scenarios through the eyes of a former intelligence analyst.
Scenario 1: The Rajiv-Sonia marriage
At the outset there is nothing more than just another love story to Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s romance with Miss Antonia Albina Maino in the mid 1960’s. Any suggestion that there were characters in the Cambridge university campus that not only hooked them up but also nurtured the famous romance is too farfetched. But having said that, let us consider some of the London tabloid reports of that time which variously suggested Rajiv was “constantly influenced” by a couple of students of European origin (I would not take names and let researchers do some hard work) and that at least one of those students was later absorbed by the Vatican’s intelligence wing. It would also be farfetched to speculate on Indian intelligence requesting the help of MI5 to analyze the Rajiv-Sonia romance, at least am not aware of any such report ever being filed. All these rumours and theories have done their rounds in the intelligence quarters of Delhi, especially during 1991-1992, but then we are rushing ahead of time so we shall deal with that later. I would now present as to what intelligence agencies actually did, which was very little, and let people draw their own conclusion.
Background
Post World War 1, Turin was a hub of political activity. Communism was at its peak in Europe and many left leaning socialist organizations were dabbling with the Marxist ideology and as a counter balance to that the fascist forces were emerging as an attractive alternative to many Catholics of Italy, and Turin was no exception. The small village of Orbassano near Turin mainly composed of orthodox Roman Catholic families and they all dreaded the arrival of communists on their shores and decided to join hands with the fascists lead by Mussolini. Paolo Maino was one of them. Indian intelligence gathering techniques are never given their due credit, but we have done some first rate jobs which have never been acknowledged and Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s background check was one of them. It was found that after the end of Second World War when many fascists were purged, Paolo Maino was protected by the church and no less than the Vatican itself intervened in his case and all papers pertaining to him were there by transferred to the Vatican! It was furthermore established that one of the more mysterious uncles of Paolo Maino worked for the super secret intelligence organization of the Vatican, the Opus Dei. Paolo was a construction contractor and had little savings; he could not entirely afford the educational and other expenses of his children. This mysterious uncle; who was working for the Opus Dei and whose name had been deleted from all the intelligence files; sponsored Antonio Albina Maino’s education in Cambridge in the 1960’s.
During her stay in Cambridge Miss Antonio took an “unusually high degree” of interest in the activities of groups concerning students of Indian Diaspora much before she met Rajiv. In fact, their first meeting took place in the presence of other Indian origin students and not in a Greek cafe as widely reported later. But throughout all of this she continued her association with the church and its activities and was in constant touch with “certain sections of the Vatican” which were previously also associated with the fascists. When Indian intelligence officials later questioned one of Miss Antonio’s close associates during her stay in the Cambridge, he described her relationship with the Vatican as akin to “umbilical cord”. All of these titbits were filed by many field officers of various intelligence agencies over a period of years but most analysts in the intelligence parlays of India termed them as “innocent” at worst and “needs evaluation” at best. Of course one can always concede that the analysts of that era lack the luxury of retrospective analysis as we do have now, there was definitely some lax attitude shown by these analysts in trying to decipher these events. Thus one day in 1968, after 3 odd years of courtship Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and Miss Antonio Maino; the daughter of former Fascist soldier, Paolo Maino; were married in Delhi. Miss Maino then became Mrs Sonia Gandhi for all intentions and purposes and the stepping stone to her destiny was covered with roses.
Scenario 2: Event 1, June 23rd 1980
The first player in the political theatre to have been eliminated and also the most important first link to the series of events that led to the present dispensation in the corridors of Delhi. Circumstantial evidence in the June 23rd 1980 Sanjay Gandhi air crash near Safdarjung airport points to foul play but let’s not get sucked into those futile arguments that have been raging ever since. Just suffice it to say that the single-member enquiry commission headed by Mr M L Jain which was formed to study the circumstances that lead to the plane crash has never submitted any report what so ever to the government in 3 decades. Now isn’t that fishy?
Background
Anybody who is aware of the 70’s brand of politics in India would know that Sanjay was the most important political centre, around whom most of the power was concentrated and dispensed with. Many even believed that Sanjay wielded more power than Indira Gandhi herself. It thus became pertinent for most intelligence agencies concerned with India’s affairs to have a thick case file about Sanjay Gandhi and his activities. There were some widely debunked theories of the junior Gandhi leaning towards CIA and Mrs Gandhi not being in agreement with his ideas, I do not know the origin or the veracities of these hypotheses so I would not make any comment either to encourage or discourage them. The 1960’s and 70’s Delhi was a hub of international espionage (like any other capital of any other country) because most intelligence agencies (including CIA & KGB) of that era depended on HUMINT or human intelligence officers to gather intelligence rather than satellites and drones of today. Every other day there would be speculation in the media circles of a certain politician or a certain bureaucrat working in tandem with a certain foreign intelligence agency; I would be lying if I claimed that all these speculations were wrong, in fact there were quite a few surprises in the “official” list that the Indian intelligence agencies maintained, but that is a completely different subject altogether. Coming back to Sanjay Gandhi and the interest that he generated in foreign as well as Indian intelligence circles, one thing is clear, he never worked or had any relationship with any of the foreign intelligence agencies and that much I can vouch for, but the same cannot be said about his continuous indulgence and interference with the local intelligence agencies. He always used and had his men in various wings of Indian intelligence agencies. Amidst all of this originated the “Russian hypothesis”.
There is no agreement as to when the real “Russian hypothesis” came into being, some argue that just prior to emergency in 1975 the Soviets sponsored this study because they had prior intelligence that emergency would be imposed on India, while still others argue that its origin was sometime during the Morarji Desai regime. I for one tend to agree with the former because it is a known fact that Soviets were consulted by Mrs Gandhi about emergency. Another reason to support the 1975 theory is that a secret meeting of the dreaded VKR had taken place in Delhi in the summer of 1975 (VKR = Voennaya Kontra Razvedka) and it had baffled many Indian intelligence officials as to why VKR (Russian counter intelligence wing) would meet in India. After the imposition of emergency and the awareness about Mrs Gandhi’s soviet consultation, intelligence circles widely accepted the theory of VKR meeting in Delhi as a part of that Indo-Soviet collaboration on emergency until the emergence of the “Russian hypothesis” and the eventual demise of Mr. Sanjay Gandhi. KGB had strong presence in Delhi and across India in the 70’s and many left-leaning analysts openly and covertly co-operated with KGB and other Russian intelligence agencies. One such “analyst” was part of the team that had produced the “Russian hypothesis” and he later (in 1979) leaked parts of that document to Indian intelligence and that is how the jigsaw puzzle was cracked. In the hypothesis it was concluded that Mr Sanjay Gandhi was west leaning and a capitalist and would eventually side with the CIA, although there was no universal agreement about these conclusions amongst the team that had produced the “Russian hypothesis” most of them did agree to some extent of those conclusions. It was our belief that the Soviets had decided not to take any action, mainly because of the fact that it was unlikely of KGB and even more unlikely in the case of VKR to remain quiet for more than a few months after having reached a conclusion. This is when Opus Dei comes into picture. It is a well known fact that Opus Dei and parts of Russian intelligence had always collaborated on certain matters. Exactly how or when did Opus Dei come into the possession of “Russian hypothesis” is merely in the realm of speculation but what is incontrovertible is that the Vatican intelligence did have enormous influence on Josef Stavinoha, the man who was heading VKR at that time and thus KGB in active collaboration with Opus Dei decided to act on the “Russian hypothesis” sometime in March 1980. As a direct result of that, June 23rd 1980 happened as an accident.
Continuum
After the sudden demise of Mr Sanjay Gandhi, there was the question of two other people, the very political wife Mrs Maneka Gandhi and son Mr Varun Gandhi which had to be dealt with by the Gandhi family. While there is no denying the fact that Mrs Indira Gandhi and her daughter in law Mrs Maneka Gandhi had a less than cordial relationship (which was more accentuated after the arrival of Rajiv’s family, as per some household sources of the family) and usually had typical “saas-bahu” war of turfs, but what is also irrefutable is the fact that Mr Varun Gandhi was Mrs Gandhi’s favourite grandson and she simply doted on him. What exactly transpired and who facilitated the events are all debates of speculation for the tabloid media, but one thing is certain, both the widowed mother and son were completely sidelined and almost ceased to exist as far as the Gandhi family is concerned after ceremoniously being thrown out of the Prime Minister’s residence.
Scenario 3: 1984, the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi
It was one of those events in the young life of a nation that can be termed as a defining moment in history. At the outset it was a clear case of Khalistani fundamentalists avenging operation blue-star, but there were many characters at the periphery and many events preceding it which raised many an eyebrow in the intelligence communities of the world. This was also that one colossal event that catapulted the young Mr Rajiv Gandhi, a novice in politics, to the highest seat of power in South Asia and Mrs Sonia Gandhi was now the next in the line of succession by the virtue of being his wife.
Background
It is a historically well known fact that the Khalistan movement was nurtured by ISI and certain elements in Pakistan. Also well recorded are the initial reactions of some western countries like Canada who almost directly hobnobbed with the Sikh separatist leaders only to abandon them when the movement became increasingly violent. Tacit support of US and British intelligence agencies to the Khalistan intelligentsia was also much speculated upon those days. But what was a lesser known fact in the media and a matter of puzzling debates in the intelligence circles was the interest shown by the Vatican in the Khalistan movement. In 1980-81 Vatican had an open channel of discussions with certain groups of the so called “intellectuals” who were known sympathisers of the Sikh separatist movements. This interest and interactions continued well into the early 80’s and were explained as the “right of Vatican to have an interest in other religious organizations”. At the height of Khalistan movement just after operation Blue Star, many reliable Indian intelligence sources had given “definitive” information about Opus Dei funding parts of operations of Sikh separatists outside India!
After operation Blue Star there were many intelligence inputs about the threat to Mrs Gandhi’s life including some specific inputs about people in the core inner circle of Mrs Gandhi’s security system being vulnerable. Yet no action was taken, why? The assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi was a massive intelligence failure to say the least and yet no major enquiry was ordered to decipher the conspiracy theory, why? Sections of KGB and other Russian intelligence agencies had given a specific timeframe regarding “action” and yet their advice went unheeded, why? Soviet sources, in informal briefings had warned about certain western intelligence agencies being in cahoots with Sikh separatists and yet those warnings were disregarded, why?
A part of the answer to those questions can be explained as plain incompetence as usual. May be one can also argue that we now have the power of hindsight which we lacked then. But definitely there is a part of the answer to that question which is more complex and only takes my theory forward to its logical conclusion. It is not as if we did nothing, security experts and Intelligence aficionados gave at least 2 formal specific presentations to Mrs Gandhi on 2 different occasions about the need to re-haul the entire security apparatus around her. But on both these occasions apart from Mrs Gandhi’s nonchalance we met with the biggest resistance from one particular member of her core team. He was a very powerful member of what was then known to the media as “kitchen cabinet” and had also been described as a “power broker of the highest degree” by many media houses and visiting dignitaries. There was no reason to suspect any mal-intentions in him, as he was also known to be very close to Mr Rajiv Gandhi (unlike some members of the “kitchen cabinet” who had a turf war with the junior Gandhi). Post assassination there was a bit of a stir in the media about the same gentleman followed by hush-hush events. We in the intelligence were also surprised to know about his strong linkages with certain Western intelligence agencies. Nothing really happened after that for quite some time and Mr Rajiv Gandhi only restored the same gentleman back in his team with full honours and the whole episode was laid to rest. But the biggest revelation to the intelligence wings came a little later (and was not accorded much importance at that time). Unlike media perceptions that the said gentleman belonged to the Rajiv Gandhi coterie and to the “kitchen cabinet”, he actually owed both his positions and his re-instatement into the inner circles of power after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi to a certain Mrs Sonia Gandhi!
Scenario 4: 1991, the assassination of Mr Rajiv Gandhi
When Mr Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur on 21st May 1991, it did come as a shock to the intelligence community in India but it would be false to suggest that we had absolutely no clue about it. Tamil Tigers animosity towards Mr Rajiv Gandhi was by no means a universally accepted fact in the intelligence circles and yet there were “elements” in the establishment who had assessed the risk factors from time to time. Many analysts had pointed out way back in 1985 (when Rajiv first tried to establish channels to tigers) the unpredictable nature of the leadership of LTTE and their perceived closeness to “certain” European and Western intelligence agencies. Mr Rajiv Gandhi was more influenced by a section of foreign policy analysts and he paid little heed to whatever little reservations the Indian intelligence agencies had vis-à-vis Tamil Tigers. I must confess that intelligence community in India did not really cover themselves in glory in this whole episode, because it might come as a surprise to most readers to know that we had threat perception for Mr Rajiv Gandhi from many other quarters like Sikh separatists, Islamic (Pakistani funded) militant groups, Chinese sponsored mercenaries and even rogue KGB agents, but had very few inputs and analysis about Tamil Tigers! That was a grave error to say the least. Due to myriad intelligence inputs and even more complex analysis the enquiry following the assassination was mired in many ideas and was muddled in too many complexities.
Background
The Rajiv Gandhi era was defined by two major geo-political changes in India and South Asia;
· Pakistan’s involvement with separatist groups in Kashmir and the birth of Islamic terrorism in the valley
· India’s direct mediation in Sri Lanka vis-à-vis Tamil issue
Both these geo-political affairs in South Asia had linkages to Western intelligence agencies at some point or other. It is a well known fact that CIA did help Kashmiri terror outfits in the initial years ostensibly to decrease Soviet influence in the region and also because US intelligence establishments were day dreaming about controlling all forms of Islamic extremist organisations from Afghanistan and Central Asia to the Middle-East and Western Africa. The results of those ill-fated forays have been disastrous as we have seen today, but that is a different story for some other time. Lesser known fact is the support to LTTE by many European intelligence agencies including MI5 & NIS (Norwegian Intelligence Service). Thus, although Mr Rajiv Gandhi considered Mr Vellupali Prabhakaran as a personal friend, the LTTE leader was more under the influence of many other intelligence organisations than India which should have been his natural ally. If the Western intelligence agencies wanted to eliminate Mr Rajiv Gandhi (for whatever myriad reasons) they had 2 very plausible ways to achieve their hit; Islamic Terror outfits in Kashmir and LTTE; apart from many other difficult options. LTTE having assassinated Mr Rajiv Gandhi unilaterally can be ruled out for all practical purposes as it was too much under the influence and control of many agencies and also it would have needed a thorough assurance that its own organization would not be eliminated following the assassination. Mr Prabhakaran, whatever else he was, was a practical man with very sensible ideas to survive for a long term struggle for Tamil Elam. He would have realized at the very outset that eliminating Mr Rajiv Gandhi could become an existential threat to LTTE itself. He had the precedence of the Khalistan movement being crushed following Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the might of IPKF, which had almost managed to destroy about 80% of LTTE.
Mr Prabhakaran apart from being Tamil was also a catholic and there is a theory that the Vatican had helped LTTE in the initial phases to establish a “catholic” land in the Northern parts of Sri Lanka independent of the “Buddhist” Sinhalese regime. I have many intelligence inputs to confirm these linkages between the Vatican and the LTTE. Norway which had always played a role in the Sri Lankan peace process had a commanding influence over LTTE, especially over the northern faction of LTTE comprising Prabhakaran and co. Norwegian intelligence or NIS had not only given financial assistance but also had provided military training and logistical support to many northern LTTE command groups. I must state here that the western part of LTTE led by Karuna and co was less under the influence of these organisations and was more open to collaboration with India. There was also an unconfirmed report that Karuna was against the whole plot to assassinate Mr Rajiv Gandhi and had even tried in vain to contact Indian intelligence agencies about the impending attack. NIS and other Scandinavian intelligence agencies in the 80’s and early 90’s were also heavily under the influence of Opus Dei and other intelligence establishments of the Vatican. There were many reasons for this, primary being the fact Norway’s borders with Soviet Russia and the Opus Dei’s final plans to liberate the orthodox Russian church from the communists. Finally, we have very strong intelligence inputs about NIS having given the final order of a “hit” on Mr Rajiv Gandhi and also the requisite assurance of “no-attack” from India on LTTE in any eventuality. Thus Prabhakaran decided to assassinate Mr Rajiv Gandhi despite internal opposition and many apprehensions. What is even more curious was the timing of attack (which was also a pre-condition by the Norwegian controllers of LTTE as per many intercepts of Russian intelligence revealed to India much later). It was as if someone wanted to influence the ensuing general elections in India by assassinating a tall leader (they had the precedent of 1985 elections following Mrs Gandhi’s killing). But, they only partly succeeded in that as congress could not get a majority on its own which was partially due to the fact that a part of those elections were held before the event and partially due to the changed political scenario of India in the beginning of the 90’s.
The Analysis
After the assassination many intelligence teams were working on many number of theories and officially SIT (special investigation team) was formed to fast track the whole process and at least theoretically all these intelligence teams were supposed to be working under the aegis of the SIT. We were a group of 5 analysts working on the conspiracy angle (there were other groups of people also working on many conspiracy theories) leading up to the assassination. This is when we first stumbled upon the theory of the Vatican’s interest in India’s 1st family (the Gandhi family), which was earlier researched by a team previously working on the killing of senior Mrs Gandhi. Layer by layer we were gathering all the previous inputs and seemingly farfetched hypothesises put forward by many people in the past. Most of the inputs that I have talked about till now throughout this paper (part 1) were discovered and analysed during those 6 months when we worked together in that team. Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister of India then and he had made it a point to get all the reports on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case delivered to him directly (with no intermediaries) at regular intervals. I remember it correctly, when we had sent our detailed analysis report with all the relevant intelligence inputs to the PMO on a Thursday afternoon. The report contained all the various theories that we had suggested but we had not reached any conclusions.
The first time it’s a chance, the second time it’s a coincidence and the third time it’s a pattern. I guess it was just a matter of time before we would reach the conclusion that the sole beneficiary of all these scenarios and events was the one and only Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Mr Rajiv Gandhi. How 3 events (assassination & “unnatural” deaths of the three Gandhis) and the 4 scenarios involving 5 people who were either eliminated or completely sidelined leading to the final destiny of Mrs Sonia Gandhi is really a fascinating story. On Monday morning our team was dismantled, we were asked to work on another theory of CIA’s involvement with the LTTE and about understanding the financial structuring of the Tamil Tigers and we were told in no uncertain terms to abandon our “farfetched” theories and to work on more “realistic” aspects that would provide more tangible results.
After that we never mentioned about “the Rajiv brief” or about what had happened in those 6 months. But I have been keeping track of events since then. One important loophole about the theory as explained till now would be the reluctance of Mrs Sonia Gandhi to accept the position of power after the 1991 elections. I would like to deal with the post Rajiv era in part 2 when I will hopefully explain all of those issues. I have formulated my own set of theories and have reached my own conclusions, but they will be elaborated upon in the next 2 parts of this treatise.

… To be continued.
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2 Responses “From Blog of Ex-Indian Intelligence” →

Garima Obrah
December 31, 2011
Hi Nishka, I am writing to you on behalf of The Viewspaper regarding a major event on Twitter. If interested, please contact us at garimao@theviewspaper.net
Regards,
Garima
Reply

As I google all the various articles and write-ups on this subject, I rue the fact that I did not have the foresight to save the informative articles tweeted.
Nevertheless the entire episode of of Sonia Maino-Gandhi’s purported serious surgery (from congress sources) which was supposedly for cervical cancer and which has now mutated into a story (by supposedly congress sources) of benign skin cancer (why would that require a serious surgery is a question that begs to be answered) is mind bogglingly bizarre. Can you imagine these permutations and combinations about say a US president? That country would be up in arms. Nevertheless we should explore all the different versions floating around.
Version 1: Serious surgery for cervical cancer
Sonia diagnosed with cervical cancerhttp://www.deccanherald.com/content/181508/sonia-diagnosed-cervical-cancer.html
A brief statement put out by the party said Sonia underwent a surgery on August 4 and the surgeon has indicated that the operation has been successful. It, however, did not disclose the reasons that necessitated Sonia to undergo the surgery. Nor did the statement mention the hospital or the country where she underwent the surgery.http://indiafirstedition.com/sonia-gandhi-hospitalised-in-new-york-cervical-cancer-suspected/
AICC spokesperson Janaradhana Dviwedi today made a statement on Sonia’s health condition. Dviwedi told that Sonia Gandhi is completely safe and she needs to rest for 3 weeks according to what the doctors have conveyed to him.
Needless to say, as with everything else related to the Maino Gandhi clan, the country knew nothing of this. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s surgery was literally a public affair done at AIIMs.
But despite all that, surely someone in the nation would have known if this was diagnosed as people are hearing now, atleast a year ago. There has not been a peep from any quarter.
Also, Sonia Maino-Gandhi’s activities prior to the surgery were strange to say the least. Post the June 5th whacking at Ramlilla grounds, she whizzed all over Europe with her son and UPA courtiers the primary destination being Zug in Switzerland. Now Zug is not a center of medical facilities. Google for what it is.
On July 25th she was in Bangladesh accepting an award on behalf of Indira Gandhi (as an aside, during the Bangladesh war she, hubby and kids absconded to safety in Italy).http://www.newsofdelhi.com/news-from-india/sonia-gandhi-get-the-highest-award-of-bangladesh-from-prime-minister-sheikh-hasina
One must commend her on keeping her form despite being a cervical cancer patient for some time. As per Dean Nelson, she has been receiving treatment for 8 months (this is news to India). Looks pretty good in picture above.
Her family and clan are supposed to be with her. Who is footing the bill is another question altogether.
Version 2: Hanging around in NYC, Waiting for Treatment
Post the news about her surgery, came the tweets from Subramaniun Swamy as below -:
Subramanian Swamy@Swamy39
CNN-IBN has a pulled a fast one on the Indian public. Sonia has not been operated yet. Dr. Nori is vacationing in Europe. She and –next
5 Aug 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
CNN-IBN has a pulled a fast one on the Indian public. Sonia has not been operated yet. Dr. Nori is vacationing in Europe. She and –next
Subramanian Swamy@Swamy39
40 others mostly foreigners living a huge posh apartment in NYC. Her first test in hospital on Tuesday.
5 Aug 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
40 others mostly foreigners living a huge posh apartment in NYC. Her first test in hospital on Tuesday.
Subramanian Swamy@Swamy39
Dr. Nori no more with Sloan-K but with another hospital, but could be loaned to Sloan-K for this operation. He has been contacted by them
5 Aug 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Dr. Nori no more with Sloan-K but with another hospital, but could be loaned to Sloan-K for this operation. He has been contacted by them
Subramanian Swamy@Swamy39
Sonia’s entourage is paying $ 40 000 a day for expenses for staying in two floors of plush Manhattan apartment.Lawyers and bankers arriving.
7 Aug 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Sonia’s entourage is paying $ 40 000 a day for expenses for staying in two floors of plush Manhattan apartment.Lawyers and bankers arriving.
Sandeep@steadyhunk 11 Aug 11
@Swamy39 So, whose side the India is on, Italian clan or Indian constitution..i am with Indian constitution @shivsinghDESH @Meedana @vbg111
Subramanian Swamy@Swamy39
@steadyhunk @shivsinghDESH @Meedana @vbg111 : Indian Consulate told to stay away totally from Sonia. Some foreign security in charge!!
11 Aug 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Indian Consulate told to stay away totally from Sonia. Some foreign security in charge!!
Dr. Swamy is in the US presently and is one person who usually has access to really good sources. So we are pretty much halfway there.
Then to take us all the way there came this bombshell-:http://www.firstpost.com/politics/new-pmo-man-pulok-oversaw-sonias-sloan-kettering-move-55315.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
India’s Gandhi family has pulled off something most powerful American political dynasties can’t (or don’t) do. The Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre does not have Sonia Gandhi’s name in the hospitalised patient data system. At this point she is a ghost!
Members of the Indian Overseas Congress trickled into the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to get news about the Congress leader and glimpse her children Rahul and Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra. The wait has proved futile so far but the vigil continues on Friday.
Huh!
Version 3: Relatively benign skin cancer
This is a recent theory being floated by some media channels in India. I can assure you that the Indian channels would not float this theory without a nod from someone in the Congress. Sonia Maino-Gandhi is after all the uncrowned queen and the implication of random theories would be too much for a media channel.

She has benign skin cancer and will be back soon
This is the weirdest of all stories -:
Why is she in Sloan-Kettering for a benign skin cancer treatment? That would be fairly easy to treat in India and at much lower costs. Her whole crew is in NYC and they are supposedly booking hotel like suites in the hospital for a skin cancer treatment!!!
Why was she in ICU after a serious surgery? Benign skin cancer can be treated through localised radiation.
Version 4 – Breast Cancer
This is the newest of theories floating around. The primary source of this is someone on twitter whose ob/gyn friend works at Sloan and has heard this theory but is not sure.
This theory is completely bogus and at the same level as the skin cancer affair. The spin masters are now spreading rumors amongst the doctors of the hospital so that the lie appears credible. Fact is that only a small inner circle would be treating Sonia and they will have to be very tight-lipped. Someone is spinning rumors at the hospital to give this story a ring of credibility.
Conclusion
I’ll leave the reader to figure out what the truth may be. Obviously, with this clan nothing is as it seems. The theories of what may be happening have insidious to relatively benign implications for the nation.
I believe that what happened was that some hapless congressman revealed the truth about Sonia’s cervical cancer. As with most people in India he was not aware of some of the origins of this form of cancer. The news spread and all was well and good till Indians started researching the root causes of cervical cancer. Unfortunately a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and people are jumping to all sorts of conclusion. Since then the congress spin machine has it’s knickers in a twist and is bringing out as many versions as possible. As expert propagandists, they are fully aware that people will not buy the skin cancer theory and see through why the cover-up. Instead, the best they can hope for is to confuse the masses within all sorts of different versions of cancer. That way as with the rest of the facts about the Gandhi clan this fact will also get obfuscated in permutations and combinations.
I am also beginning to believe that more in happening in NYC than meets the eye. There is succession planning and wheeling-dealing that is potentially happening. This probably explains the uber secrecy behind this visit.
PS: If Sonia had come out in the open about her cervical cancer, no one would have thought anything about it. HPV is dangerously easy to pass and many women in India get it.
PPS: Latest Update (2/9/2011)
Two more theories are doing rounds. Sonia Gandhi has Glioma of the brain and/or she has pancreatic cancer. Additionally, people really don’t know where she is. There have been rumours of her being in Johns Hopkins, Howard Hughes medical center and so on and so forth. She has been due to arrive in India within 2-3 days for the last 2 weeks.

The Strange Visits of the Maino-Gandhi Clan
Posted on August 8, 2010 5

This is just a smattering of visits that have been widely discussed. Visits when Rajiv Gandhi was PM are not included. I am certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Sonia & Raul’s visit to the US (2010)http://politicsparty.com/sonia_syndrome.phphttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/her-mother-ill-sonia-flies-to-us-with-rahul/653776/
This was a most bizarre visit with Sonia and Raul MIA for both, a crucial meeting with David Cameroon and the monsoon session of the Parliament. The masses knew nothing, the media kept mum till people began to ask and the congress spin machine got back into action with a “Paola Maino” needs advanced tests. Raul returned on August 2nd to silence the rumbles. The media started spreading the supposed truth.
This nation deserves complete transparency from it’s leaders (servants of the people, right). Questions that need to be asked are; Why was the Maino-Gandhi clan silent about the reason for the visit, after all an ailing mother is nothing to be ashamed of? Who is footing the bill? Why is Paola Maino who spends all her time in Delhi not being treated in AIIMs or for that matter in Italy, the latter has top of the line hospitals? Was it really Paola Maino’s illness that prompted this hush-hush visit? Does it have to do with any of the defence deals currently being inked and the corresponding Cayman flows? Is there any relationship with the happy eruption in Kashmir?
You will see that Paola Maino has had a long association with defence dalaals. Quottrocchi anyone? Surprisingly it is not unusual that “defence deal”, “suspicious visit” and Paola Maino intersect. There is more on her later in the list.
Below is Swamy’s tweet on the subject
@Swamy39 : She and siblings plus progeny plus Q are in London working out how the recently discovered gold bars of the Nehrus can be split.
Rauls disappearance/visit in Orissa (2008)http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rahuls-detour-into-naxal-area-angers-orissa-mps/61075-3.htmlhttp://www.freshnews.in/lok-sabha-disrupted-over-rahul-gandhis-night-out-in-orissa-22976http://www.bloggernews.net/114439
We all know that Orissa is a hotbed of Maoist-Missionary activity a lot of which is driven by the rich natural resources of the state. Do read “Thy will be done”http://www.amazon.com/Thy-Will-Done-Rockefeller-Evangelism/dp/0060927232/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281302656&sr=1-1 to understand the relationship between such movements and mineral/resource rich regions.
We also know that the Maino-Gandhi clan has not condemned Maoist activity in the country. While direct missionary activity such as Gladys Steines and others get visible and evident support, hidden and violent missionary activity like the Maoists gets covert support through – no condemnation of such movements, support to intellectuals and journalists who are overground supporters of these movements and incapacitation of security efforts to curtail the violence. The connection of this potent combine of Maoist-Missionaries to mineral and resource regions is the magic equation.
Needless to say, several questions arise around this disappearance. Who was Raul Gandhi meeting? Why could the meeting not take place in front of all his countrypeople? Was this meeting in India’s interest? Could this meeting have to do with the mining mafia?
Priyanka Vadra’s visit to Nalini – LTTE Assassin (2008)http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/02flip.htm
It is a bit strange that Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter received permission to do precisely what her great-grandfather had denied to the Mahatma’s flesh and blood, but we live in a very different age from the India of sixty years ago. I suppose both Dr Manmohan Singh and Thiru Karunanidhi thought that Priyanka Vadra could hold her own.
It is also a matter of record that the Nehru-Gandhi family made its peace with Nalini Sriharan long ago. The last surviving member of the assassination squad, Nalini Sriharan was actually sentenced to death; as I remember, a plea of clemency from Sonia Gandhi herself was instrumental in commutation of that sentence.http://www.asiantribune.com/node/10664http://www.boloji.com/myword/mwna019.htm
Will we ever know?
Sonia and Raul’s visits to China (2007, 2008)http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/oct/29china.htm
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday wound up her visit to China, becoming the first world leader to meet the newly-elected Chinese leadership and renewing Sino-Indian friendship, which her late husband, Rajiv, had given an impetus 19 years ago.http://www.indianexpress.com/news/olympics-sonia-to-go-to-china-may-meet-com/343889/
While these were more public visits, the buzz is that a number of deals involving ores (to the detriment of India but beneficial to Swiss bank accounts) were inked. Additionally, there may have been informal dialogue related to Indian borders.
Sonia’s visits to Russia (2005) – likely more than onehttp://mediavigil.blogspot.com/2005/08/ngo-watch.html
The invitation of President Vladimir Putin. Accusations were made about how she breached the protocol and how an executive plane of a big business house was used to fly her to Moscow. Objections were raised about Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, seeing her off at the airport and the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, accompanying her to Russia
Sonia Gandhi’s four-day visit, organized by the Dialogue of Civilizations, a non-governmental group (What is this group?).
Sonia is in Russia as a personal guest of President Vladimir Putin.
Putin expressed satisfaction at the ongoing cooperation between India and Russia in all spheres of human activity, including defense.
Paola Maino’s visit to Anton Balasingham (2004)
Now as with most things in India, this visit was never made public so we have to rely on blogs to provide us with informationhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/49316?l=1http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2955http://www.newsanalysisindia.com/129042007.htmhttp://www.angelfire.com/in/jalnews/2001/13041.htm
This (these) visits to LTTE head honchos are really curious given that LTTE did away with Paola Maino’s son-in-law. You will also see Quattrocchi’s name come up again and again in the context of the LTTE. Paola Maino and arms in an interesting cross-reference you will see again and again.
Raul’s visit and trouble in US/ Logan (2001)http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090415202855AAFtfbFhttp://satyameva-jayate.org/2007/11/15/rahul-gandhi-boston-2001/
The story goes that Raul was apprehended at Boston’s Logan airport due to possession of $200,000 in cash which is apparently illegal. He was with his girlfriend/whatever else Juanita (whose uncle is a big drug and arms dealer, you will notice a pattern in the type of company the Maino-Gandhi clan keeps).
Brajesh Mishra came to the rescue and all was made hunky dory. Obviously, this news never made it to Indian mainstream media. One would be very interested in knowing what else Raul Gandhi had in his possession that required top level Indian Govt. intervention. One also worries that this knowledge could be used as a stick by foreign governments to control Maino-Gandhi clan.
Conclusion
It is impossible to connect the dots with the list above. We probably need access to 1000’s of dots more which ordinary people like us will not have access to.
What is evident is that while “Nehru was an egotistical, bumbling sepoy (much to India’s detriment), Indira Gandhi a cruel dictator and mixed bag, Rajiv Gandhi a greedy, bumbling idiot, the additional of the Maino gene to the Gandhi clan has mutated it into something truly ominous for India.
If you have additional data points please add them to the comments section.
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Shailesh Pandey
October 26, 2010
It is so obvious that this family has NOT a thing for our nation… but still a sizable chunk of political class are hell bent on retaining them in the top echelons of power … Misfortune is too small a word to describe what has befallen our nation in the form of these foreign IMPLANT’s … I get visions of vultures eating away at the very wounded body of a human(our nation) … U should write more ….
nice one
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Esoteric
June 18, 2011
The Maino’s ‘now’ are a part of the Global Elite,the same elite trying to create allegedly a NWO etc.The situation is similar to the US and even UK.Here the Govt is in power but big corporates and families actually exercise the power.
On these tables, ‘size’ of deal matters.China in late 70s brought to the table (with Kissengers help) a big stake in that country for the West and in return China agreed to ‘open’ its economy.Maino’s ie Sonia is #9 on the most powerful persons in the world,according to Forbes.
Given this context,India for them is a resource to be milked.Everything is up for sale.Everyone is up for sale.In India,this leakage of funds in the form of black money is a trojan horse to control the elites.Sadly,most of them fall for the lure and the apologist propaganda.
In this equation,the key man is MMS.He is the one who can exercise the power that he has vested in him by law and act against them.Given,his RBI stint when he allowed BCCI(erstwile Pakistani bank) to operate in India despite its shady corporate structure amongst other things might be the ‘failure’ used to control him.Ofcourse,once you reach a certain level in Govt of India it was well known that US companies,embassy etc will try to influence policy in return for upto 25 Lacs in foreign postings etc for the Babu/employee in early 90s.This right tilt was necessitated due to collapse of USSR & our own bankruptcy.
Its anybodys guess as to how many politicians are ‘clean’.Everyone has been compromised in some way.Some good ones too,who want to be on the anti-corruption side cannot be.That leaves alone the one’s who are fighting the anti-corruption battle.No wonder,force was used at Ramlila Grounds.Allowing this campaign to succeed will not only put Kalmadis in jail..but also threaten/uncover the Fennel/Hoopers of the world.
But the momemtum is with the crusadors given the economic collapse,given that another is round the corner.With less money,elites will have less power and start fighting/devoruing each other.
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Shreedhar
August 3, 2011
She is part of bilderbergs. And, out to save them using our wealth. Beware.
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[…] This is just a smattering of visits that have been widely discussed. Visits when Rajiv Gandhi was PM are not included. I am certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Sonia & Raul’s visit to the US (2010) http://politicsparty.com/sonia_syndrome.phphttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/her-mother-ill-sonia-flies-to-us-with-rahul/653776/ This was a most bizarre visit with Sonia and Raul MIA for bot … Read More […]